Webspotlight:

A National Yardstick for Gauging Math Progress

States Show Uneven Performance; Even Top Achievers Fall Short

To complement Quality Counts 2010’s exploration of reinvigorated interest in common standards and assessments on the national stage, the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center conducted an original analysis intended to help ground these dynamic debates in a firm understanding of state performance in one core academic area.

Geography matters. Where a student lives affects his or her chances of benefiting from known correlates of achievement and attainment. Those would include exposure to a middle school curriculum that places students on track for advanced coursetaking during high school, as well as the opportunity to learn from experienced and well-qualified math teachers.
For example, only one out of five students nationally attends a school where taking algebra by the 8th grade is the norm. However, the index shows tremendous cross-state variability in this opportunity indicator, with virtually no 8th graders attending such schools in some states, compared with more than half in California.
A closer investigation of Math Progress Index data reveals that states where poor students have more-equal access to experienced math teachers also tend to post significantly smaller math-achievement gaps. This is, just to be clear, correlation and not causation.http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/01/14/17math.h29.html?tkn=R[MF4Qzo6orsW67cZxBzNGAHZdia9LvSag4Zhttp://www.edweek.org/media/ew/qc/2010/17overview.h29.math.pdf

Debunking the Case for National Standards

By Alfie Kohn

I keep thinking it can’t get much worse, and then it does.
A decade ago, many of us thought we had hit bottom—until the floor gave way and we found ourselves in a basement we didn’t know existed. Now every state had to test every student every year in grades 3-8, judging them (and their schools) almost exclusively by test scores and hurting the schools that needed the most help. Ludicrously unrealistic proficiency targets suggested that the federal law responsible was intended to sabotage rather than improve public education.

Let’s be clear about this latest initiative, which is being spearheaded by politicians, corporate CEOs, and companies that produce standardized tests. First, what they’re trying to sell us are national standards. They carefully point out that the effort isn’t driven by the federal government. But if all, or nearly all, states end up adopting identical mandates, that distinction doesn’t amount to much.

Second, these standards will inevitably be accompanied by a national standardized test.

Third, a relatively small group of experts—far from classrooms—will be designing standards, test questions, and curricula for the rest of us.

Advocates of national standards say they want all (American) students to attain excellence, no matter where they happen to live. The problem is that excellence is being confused with entirely different attributes, such as uniformity, rigor, specificity, and victory.

…common-core-standards Web site, don’t bother looking for words like “exploration,” “intrinsic motivation,” “developmentally appropriate,” or “democracy.” Instead, the very first sentence contains the phrase “success in the global economy,” followed immediately by “America’s competitive edge.”

Yes, we want excellent teaching and learning for all—although our emphasis should be less on achievement (read: test scores) than on students’ achievements. Offered a list of standards, we should scrutinize each one, but also ask who came up with them and for what purpose. Is there room for discussion and disagreement—and not just by experts—regarding what, and how, we’re teaching and how authentic our criteria are for judging success? Or is this a matter of “obey or else,” with tests to enforce compliance?http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/01/14/17kohn-comm.h29.html?tkn=WXUFzMageZQH55f62llSx04pEy9h1dTAV7g0

Walnut school adds iPod touch to three Rs

By Caroline An, Staff Writer

With their headphones and iPod Touch machines on, Beatrice Azanza’s 20 third grade students were geared up for an afternoon of reading and math.
After a lesson on addition and subtraction, Azanza’s students can get on the iPod Touch, launch the Basic Math application, and test how quickly they can solve a set of problems. The fun, Azanza said, is endless.
In September, Azanza’s class was chosen for a pilot program to gauge if students’ English comprehension and fluency improved with daily use of the iPod Touch. Oswalt Academy is already using technology in the classrooms, having implemented a One to One Laptop Learning Program two years ago. Currently, fifth through seventh grade students use computers with pre-loaded textbooks and other applications, said Astrid Ramirez, Oswalt’s principal. Oswalt was recently named one of eight schools in California as an Apple Distinguished School.

Azanza said to help students improve their reading and comprehension skills, she will have to listen to a book on iPod Touch so they can hear the different intonations and where the pauses are. After that, the students will record themselves reading the same story.

The idea is to have an audio archive so students can hear how they have improved over the weeks.

NMSA09:

Teaching in 4-D: Rick Wormeli Closing Keynote
Expertise
What elements of This We Believe have we really integrated into our teaching?
We teach in ways they best learn, not we best learn.
Teachers have their own secret code so the kids don’t know what’s going on: Cursive.
We don’t settle for this reality in exchange of a potential reality.
“I don’t know” gets the response of “If you did know, what would you say?”
Fine arts gives dimension and meaning!
Kids need to eat every 90 mins. or they lose cognition.
Irritability is the first sign of dehydration.
Creativity
Mantra of the middle school teacher is “Let me get out of the way.” Open up all the possibilities for our students to express what they have learned.
(example: juggling illustration of ethos, pathos, and logos.)
We need to teach our kids how to ask good questions. Really GOOD questions.
Thems that ask the questions are doin’ the learning!
Teach in different ways.
How would you teach if you couldn’t give homework?
How would you teach if there wasn’t long term memory?
Failure
Concerned with the demonization of failure.
Differentiate the assessment if the assessment is not the product.
The person who never makes mistakes takes his orders from one who does.
Go beyond the “Gotcha/Caughtcha” mentality.
Rim Waver: the child digs a pit and the teacher stands at the rim and waves . . .
Your job is to jump into the pit and tell the kid, “I’ve been here before. I know the way out.”
Our commission: I teach so that you can learn.
Redos
Let them redo. Every real world test does!
Make them do a letter about what they learned if they do a redo
Make it a learning experience (a small hassle) to redo, but let them redo.
Get them to get permission from their parent to do a redo.
Charge $5.00 to do a redo and finance the budget.
Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the judgement that something else is more important than that fear. (Horace Redmoon?)
Collaboration
There is a democratization of knowledge.
Kids can check your facts.
We do all this stuff together.
We become a bright, shining community …
Full use of personal technology!
Narcissism
Facebook, MySpace: We’re creating an online culture where people only visit sites that are familiar.
We need to expose our students to multiple sources of information.
Join a listserv (MiddleTalk Rules!)
Write a letter to yourself about all you learned here at the conference and then seal it in an envelope and give it to a friend to mail to you in six months as a
way to re-ignite the fire from the conference.
… that can become the echo (slide changes before I can finish …)
Doubt is the compass rose to an educator.
Who’s voice is not being heard?
How do our metaphors limit us?
Core classes (What are the others then?)
LD (Learn Differently or Learning Disabled?)
What is the role of homework?
Does it matter WHEN he learns it?
The General Westmoreland paratrooper story.
We need to hang out with the folks who inspire us to be better teachers.
Fight the good fight more than 50% of the time.
Go out and ask the important questions and inspire the next generation.
This, we believe . . .
Video: The Perfect Teacher, an Instructional Lesson in … Instruction!
Sound of Music clip.

Google Teacher Academy for Administrators: “We’re very excited to announce our first ever Google Teacher Academy for Administrators. Since many of you have been asking for a GTA for Admins for a while, we’ve decided to host the first one immediately preceding the ASCD conference, on Friday, March 5th in San Antonio, Texas. As you might know, the Google Teacher Academy for Administrators is a FREE professional development experience designed to help K-12 educational leaders get the most from innovative technologies. Each Academy is an intensive, one-day event where participants get hands-on experience with Google’s free products and other technologies, learn about innovative instructional strategies, receive resources to share with colleagues, and learn how to apply examples from our innovative corporate environment. Potential applicants include educational leaders or decision makers including (but not limited to) school principals, assistant principals, state, county or district superintendents, technology directors or coordinators, and CTOs who actively serve K-12 teachers and students. For more information, please check out: http://www.google.com/educators/gtaforadmins.html
OR
Apply before midnight, January 25th here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/a/google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dE1lYmFfTU4zN1RQWDBpX20wb3BsWXc6MA “

Jokes:

Albert Einstein – When Albert Einstein was making the rounds of the speaker’s circuit, he usually found himself eagerly longing to get back to his laboratory work. One night as they were driving to yet another rubber-chicken dinner, Einstein mentioned to his chauffeur (a man who somewhat resembled Einstein in looks & manner) that he was tired of speechmaking. “I have an idea, boss,” his chauffeur said. “I’ve heard you give this speech so many times. I’ll bet I could give it for you.” Einstein laughed loudly and said, “Why not? Let’s do it!”

When they arrive at the dinner, Einstein donned the chauffeur’s cap and jacket and sat in the back of the room. The chauffeur gave a beautiful rendition of Einstein’s speech and even answered a few questions expertly Then a supremely pompous professor ask an extremely esoteric question about anti-matter formation, digressing here and there to let everyone in the audience know that he was nobody’s fool. Without missing a beat, the chauffeur fixed the professor with a steely stare and said, “Sir, the answer to that question is so simple that I will let my chauffeur, who is sitting in the back, answer it for me.”

A teacher and a principal go on a fishing trip. They rent all the equipment – the reels, the rods, the wading suits, the rowboat, the car, and even a cabin in the woods. I mean they spend a fortune!

The first day they go fishing, but they don’t catch anything. The same thing happens on the second day, and on the third day. It goes on like this until finally, on the last day of their vacation, one of the men catches a fish.

As they’re driving home they’re really depressed. One guy turns to the other and says, “Do you realise that this one lousy fish we caught cost us fifteen hundred bucks?”

The other guy says, “Wow! Then it’s a good thing we didn’t catch any more!”

Shout out:

LindaB23

Answer to our Palindromic question from Doc Tatum: “Concerning last podcast – Feb. palindrome: Australia, they do day then month (01-02-2010) Keep up Gr8 work w/ podcast!! Monte”

Hi Guys,
Here is some information for Middle School Science. I produce the Michigan Science Matters Network on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month. If you like this information, I can try to send it on a regular basis. You can hear the podcast at:k12science.net and you can view the hyperlinked eBlast at: msta-mich.org/smn
Keep up the good work,
Dave Bydlowski, Wayne RESA

National Lab Day

National Lab Day is more than just a day. It’s a nationwide initiative
to build local communities of support (hubs) that will foster ongoing
collaborations among volunteers, students and educators. Volunteers —
university students, scientists, engineers, other STEM professionals
and, more broadly, members of the community — will work together with
educators and students to improve labs and discovery-based science
experiences for students in grades 6-12. In the first week of May, 2010
we will celebrate this collaboration with National Lab Day activities
across the country.

What is a lab? It’s a place where you can explore, experiment, test,
and maybe even get your hands dirty. This is not just talking about test
tubes and beakers. A lab could be a laptop to a software designer, a
mountaintop to a geologist, a computer link to a distant particle
accelerator to a physicist, or a factory floor to an industrial
engineer. It’s a place where hands-on lessons in science and engineering
and technology can be designed to happen, or where math can come alive,
and it could be anywhere in the physical or virtual world.

For more information, please visit:
http://nationallabday.org

Earth Science Teachers Needed for Inquiry Advisory Panel

The Paleontological Research Institute in Ithaca, NY has a five year NSF
funded project to develop Teacher-Friendly Guides that will promote the
merging of standard geologic concepts with their local geologic history,
opening the door to inquiry by allowing teachers and their students to
apply basic science concepts to situations outside the classroom’s walls
but within the reach of student experience.

Issues; and How to Do Fieldwork. Once completed, all
guides will be posted online for free download to teachers across the
nation. The Teacher-Friendly Guides and associated online components
seek to provide educators with the pedagogic background, content, and
support that will enable them to engage students in asking real
questions about their own communities. It is hoped that students will
learn to apply understanding of Earth systems to their personal lives,
to think to ask questions about the origin of the world around them, and
to make educated attempts to answer them.

In addition, the Teacher Advisory Panel members will meet once at a site
within the region. Beyond that physical meeting, they will meet
periodically through teleconferencing while staying connected with
email.
They welcome your application to participate in a professional
development program that is focused on the Teacher-Friendly Guides to
regional Earth Sciences and Virtual Fieldwork Experiences. The two
regions of present interest are those of the Midwestern (OH, IN, IL, MI,
WI, MN, IA) and Western (WA, OR, CA, NV, AK, HI) regions in the country.

They are seeking enthusiastic educators from these two regions to meet
with them before the actual development of the guides, serving as
advisors during these initial stages. The Advisory Panels will be held
at The Field Museum, Chicago on March 6, 2010 for the Midwestern Region;
and Mission Trails Regional Park, San Diego on April 10, 2010 for the
Western Region. The deadline to apply is February 1, 2010. For more
information and to apply, please visit:
http://virtualfieldwork.org/Advisory_Application.html

If you have questions, please contact Christine Besemer 607.273.6623 x27

On Our Mind:

Race to the Top $$

Through Race to the Top, we are asking States to advance reforms around four specific areas:

Adopting standards and assessments that prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace and to compete in the global economy;

Building data systems that measure student growth and success, and inform teachers and principals about how they can improve instruction;

Recruiting, developing, rewarding, and retaining effective teachers and principals, especially where they are needed most; and

Turning around our lowest-achieving schools.

Awards in Race to the Top will go to States that are leading the way with ambitious yet achievable plans for implementing coherent, compelling, and comprehensive education reform. Race to the Top winners will help trail-blaze effective reforms and provide examples for States and local school districts throughout the country to follow as they too are hard at work on reforms that can transform our schools for decades to come.

Webspotlight:

Lesson Writer: www.lessonwriter.com
Create comprehensive literacy lesson plans and student materials from any content in minutes.
There are some things that I would like teachers to know, so thanks for giving me the opportunity to bring them to your attention and feel free to include or leave out according to what you think your audience is interested in.

I asked Stephen Churchville what he wanted our listeners to know about Lesson Writer:
“First are some underutilized features that I think are a big help to everyone:
“My Classes” allow teachers to create as many classes as they need and everything they create is stored on LessonWriter. It is easy to create word searches, flash cards, word lists for word walls, etc. from past lessons, and everything is right their when you need to make a quiz or unit test.
“Question Groups” are sub-groups of classes. Create as many as needed, assign questions, exercises, notes, to the appropriate group on the Questions page, and then print lessons with only that groups lessons. to them
Second is a little history:
I have been a teacher for 25 years and developed, tested and improved LessonWriter over many years and hundreds of secondary and adult ed classes before I decided they were ready to share with other teachers.
Third, we have two products for schools which are free with professional development trainings or available for sale. These products address many criteria of NCLB.
TeacherTeams, which has lesson sharing, collaboration, and communication tools so teachers can mentor and support each other. The reading specialist, for example, can add supplementary literacy material for students in math class, and do it online at his own convenience. TeacherTeams combined with the Question Group features make it easier to implement literacy across the curriculum initiatives, in class interventions, or even IEP’s– special Ed teacher doing pull outs or insertions can use the same material with individualized tasks.
SchoolTools allows students to take LessonWriter lessons online. There are per student settings for automatic differentiation, automated assessment features, performance tracking and data-driven instruction tools. SchoolTools also has multimedia (teach a video) features, student collaboration and communication tools, administrator and parent features.

My goal is to support the products by providing professional development, so please tell your administrators! Thanks for your interest in my work and feel free to ask any questions, make suggestions, or request features.”

GirlTalk Radio:

Girls are talking. You should listen.

GirlTalk Radio is an innovative program of the Girls, Math & Science Partnership. GirlTalk is a mentoring initiative that encourages girls to explore science, math, engineering and technology – in their own words. GirlTalk Radio consists of a series of interviews with women scientists, conducted by girls ages 11 – 16, making their debuts as Pittsburgh radio hosts!

A new season begins!
Girls are talking. You should listen. GirlTalk Radio is a show connecting girls with amazing women in Pittsburgh and beyond in math and science. What does a CIA agent really do? A marine biologist? GirlTalk Radio girls get up close and personal with women in edgy science careers. The Girls, Math & Science Partnership has teamed up with The Saturday Light Brigade to offer girls the chance to interview emerging and established female mathematicians, scientists, and engineers. Girls will learn multimedia production, audio engineering and recording technology first hand as they record and edit their interviews at The Saturday Light Brigade’s $250,000 state-of-the-art digital studios. The finished GirlTalk Radio interviews will be aired to over 70,000 regional families and available on CD and iTunes.

TRAILS:

TRAILS is a knowledge assessment with multiple-choice questions targeting a variety of information literacy skills based on sixth and ninth grade standards. This Web-based system was developed to provide an easily accessible and flexible tool for library media specialists and teachers to identify strengths and weaknesses in the information-seeking skills of their students.http://www.trails-9.org/

NMSA09:

Got Student Leadership?
Session Description: Can you imagine a positive, contagious, and exciting cultural change in your school? This presentation introduces a vibrant/dynamic school wide student leadership program that develops life skills, enhances student voice, increases student spirit/ participation, and much more. In addition to participants walking away with fun, hands-on activities that teach life skills to their students, they will also leave inspired and motivated to initiate a culture changing leadership program in their school.www.casaaleadership.ca
7-9 school dual immersion school
Student council didn’t get enough kids involved. adopt and adapt all of these thing to your school. That’s what they did.
opportunity for positive student voices start small and build 3-4 years to change the culture added music to theme
want to get positive voice going. retreat at the beginning of the year. 2 days.
create toolbox of soft skills.
handwriting write your name as many times as possible in 15 seconds debrief- fair to compare long names with short? do again with goal of writing one more letter than last time. again with switching hands. can also talk about motivation.
counting example count to 20 with no communication. count out loud
use co-captains instead of pres & vp leadership group with behavior. intramurals as a reward. monthly spirit activity- each committee takes 1 month and does spirit activities. events are to connect with the kids.
eye spy took picture of an eye of a staff member. Guesses cost $$- winner gets prize. RPS Rock Paper Scissor Leprechuan hunt- tags under chair- ice cream Sunday Monday
RAT – rise and tell – broke the code of silence. lots of talking to adults. see page 15 for guidelines on what can be done. interview process instead of elections. pull together all of the kids who applied explain who was chosen. letters are sent all. finger count
say it and do it. say opposite do opposite
Students as Mentors.

Google Teacher Academy for Administrators: “We’re very excited to announce our first ever Google Teacher Academy for Administrators. Since many of you have been asking for a GTA for Admins for a while, we’ve decided to host the first one immediately preceding the ASCD conference, on Friday, March 5th in San Antonio, Texas. As you might know, the Google Teacher Academy for Administrators is a FREE professional development experience designed to help K-12 educational leaders get the most from innovative technologies. Each Academy is an intensive, one-day event where participants get hands-on experience with Google’s free products and other technologies, learn about innovative instructional strategies, receive resources to share with colleagues, and learn how to apply examples from our innovative corporate environment. Potential applicants include educational leaders or decision makers including (but not limited to) school principals, assistant principals, state, county or district superintendents, technology directors or coordinators, and CTOs who actively serve K-12 teachers and students. For more information, please check out: http://www.google.com/educators/gtaforadmins.html
OR
Apply before midnight, January 25th here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/a/google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dE1lYmFfTU4zN1RQWDBpX20wb3BsWXc6MA “

Jokes:

1. Bring a pillow. Fall asleep (or pretend to) until the last 15 minutes. Wake up, say “oh geez, better get cracking” and do some gibberish work. Turn it in a few minutes early.

2. Get a copy of the exam, run out screaming “Andre, Andre, I’ve got the secret documents!!”

3. If it is a math/science exam, answer in essay form. If it is long answer/essay form, answer with numbers and symbols. Be creative. Use the integral symbol.

4. Make paper airplanes out of the exam. Aim them at the instructor’s left nostril.

5. Talk the entire way through the exam. Read questions aloud, debate your answers with yourself out loud. If asked to stop, yell out, “I’m so sure you can hear me thinking. ” Then start talking about what a jerk the instructor is.

6. Bring cheerleaders.

7. Walk in, get the exam, sit down. About five minutes into it, loudly say to the instructor, “I don’t understand any of this. I’ve been to every lecture all semester long! What’s the deal? And who are you? Where’s the regular guy?”

8. Bring a Game Boy (or Game Gear, etc. . . ). Play with the volume at max level.

9. On the answer sheet (book, whatever) find a new, interesting way to refuse to answer every question. For example: I refuse to answer this question on the grounds that it conflicts with my religious beliefs. Be creative.

10. Bring pets.

11. Run into the exam room looking about frantically. Breathe a sigh of relief. Go to the instructor, say “They’ve found me, I have to leave the country” and run off.

12. Fifteen minutes into the exam, stand up, rip up all the papers into very small pieces, throw them into the air and yell out “Merry Christmas. “If you’re really daring, ask for another copy of the exam. Say you lost the first one. Repeat this process every fifteen minutes.

13. Do the exam with crayons, paint, or fluorescent markers.

14. Come into the exam wearing slippers, a bathrobe, a towel on your head, and nothing else.

15. Come down with a BAD case of Turet’s Syndrome during the exam. Be as vulgar as possible.

16. Do the entire exam in another language. If you don’t know one, make one up! For math/science exams, try using Roman numerals.

17. Bring things to throw at the instructor when s/he’s not looking. Blame it on the person nearest to you.

18. As soon as the instructor hands you the exam, eat it.

19. Walk into the exam with an entourage. Claim you are going to be taping your next video during the exam. Try to get the instructor to let them stay, be persuasive. Tell the instructor to expect a percentage of the profits if they are allowed to stay.

20. Every five minutes, stand up, collect all your things, move to another seat, continue with the exam.

21. Turn in the exam approximately 30 minutes into it. As you walk out, start commenting on how easy it was.

22. Do the entire exam as if it was multiple choice and true/false. If it is a multiple choice exam, spell out interesting things (DCCAB. BABE. etc. . ).

23. Bring a black marker. Return the exam with all questions and answers completely blacked out.

24. Get the exam. Twenty minutes into it, throw your papers down violently, scream out “Forget this!” and walk out triumphantly.

25. Arrange a protest before the exam starts (i. e. Threaten the instructor that whether or not everyone’s done, they are all leaving after one hour to go drink)

26. Show up completely drunk. (Completely drunk means at some point during the exam, you should start crying for mommy).

27. Every now and then, clap twice rapidly. If the instructor asks why, tell him/her in a very derogatory tone, “the light bulb that goes on above my head when I get an idea is hooked up to a clapper. DUH!”

28. Comment on how sexy the instructor is looking that day.

29. Come to the exam wearing a black cloak. After about 30 minutes, put on a white mask and start yelling “I’m here, the phantom of the opera” until they drag you away.

30. Go to an exam for a class you have no clue about, where you know the class is very small, and the instructor would recognize you if you belonged. Claim that you have been to every lecture. Fight for your right to take the exam.

31. Upon receiving the exam, look it over, while laughing loudly, say “you don’t really expect me to waste my time on this drivel? Days of our Lives is on!!!”

32. Bring a water pistol with you.

33. From the moment the exam begins, hum the theme to Jeopardy. Ignore the instructor’s requests for you to stop. When they finally get you to leave one way or another, begin whistling the theme to the Bridge on the River Kwai.

34. Start a brawl in the middle of the exam.

35. If the exam is math/science related, make up the longest proofs you could possibly think of. Get pi and imaginary numbers into most equations. If it is a written exam, relate everything to your own life story.

36. Come in wearing a full knight’s outfit, complete with sword and shield.

37. Bring a friend to give you a back massage the entire way through the exam. Insist this person is needed, because you have bad circulation.

38. Bring cheat sheets for another class (make sure this is obvious. . . like history notes for a calculus exam. . . otherwise you’re not just failing, you’re getting kicked out too) and staple them to the exam, with the comment “Please use the attached notes for references as you see fit. “

39. When you walk in, complain about the heat.

40. After you get the exam, call the instructor over, point to any question, ask for the answer. Try to work it out of him/her.

41. One word: Wrestlemania.

42. Bring balloons, blow them up, start throwing them around like they do before concerts start.

43. Try to get people in the room to do the wave.

44. Play frisbee with a friend at the other side of the room.

45. Bring one pencil with a very sharp point. Break the point off your paper. Sharpen the pencil. Repeat this process for one hour.

46. Get deliveries of candy, flowers, balloons, telegrams, etc. . . sent to you every few minutes throughout the exam.

47. During the exam, take apart everything around you. Desks, chairs, anything you can reach.

48. Complete the exam with everything you write being backwards at a 90 degree angle.

49. Bring a musical instrument with you, play various tunes. If you are asked to stop, say “it helps me think. ” Bring a copy of the Student Handbook with you, challenging the instructor to find the section on musical instruments during finals. Don’t forget to use the phrase “Told you so”.

50. Answer the exam with the “Top Ten Reasons Why Professor xxxx is a Terrible Teacher”

Advisory:

Pamela Chandler’s students recently completed an activity in which they took a survey about the stressors in their lives. “Students were amazed at how many stressful things they deal with on a daily basis,” said Chandler. After the survey, students brainstormed ways of dealing with those stressors.

Last fall, before parent conferences, Stern asked her advisees to fill out a form designed to gather information about how students felt about school and how they thought their parents would respond to the upcoming advisory conference. “Included on that form was the question What would you like me to discuss with your parents that you feel is difficult for you to address?” said Stern. “Students have brought up the need for privacy, how they are trying hard even if they are not meeting with the results they would like, and that even though they like and respect their parents, they need to try things out for themselves. These can be difficult issues, and parents and the advisor can then discuss how to deal with them so that everybody is happier.”

Webspotlight:

Free Books:

This collection features free e-books, mostly classics, that you can read on your computer, smart phone, or Kindle. It includes great works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. To learn how to download these ebooks to your computer/mobile device, please visit our eBook Primer.

NMSA09:

Integrating Open Education Resources into the Middle School Classroom

Session Description: As school districts struggle in today’s restrictive budget environment, administrators must find innovative options for providing high-quality, standards based curriculum. Open education resources are becoming a viable alternative for how school districts use electronic curricula. The integration of free content not only enhances existing curriculum but also provides educators with a wide array of additional instructional options. This session will demonstrate how teachers and educators can work together to modify, improve, and enhance the material and then share it with other educators.
Very personalized
Based upon curriki. http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome
Teachers need time to spend playing. It’s not the end but the process that is important.
Teachers generally don’t get time to play. This is the advantage that kids have.
Have teachers evaluate sites.
The World is Open by Curtis Bonk.
The Machine is Using Us – You Tube The Machine is (Changing) Us – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU&feature=channel Curriki: Free membership – just need to register. Use the advanced search to limit searches down quickly. Several different filters are available.
3* – Collection gets a 3, then each individual lesson gets a 3 also.

Google Teacher Academy for Administrators: “We’re very excited to announce our first ever Google Teacher Academy for Administrators. Since many of you have been asking for a GTA for Admins for a while, we’ve decided to host the first one immediately preceding the ASCD conference, on Friday, March 5th in San Antonio, Texas. As you might know, the Google Teacher Academy for Administrators is a FREE professional development experience designed to help K-12 educational leaders get the most from innovative technologies. Each Academy is an intensive, one-day event where participants get hands-on experience with Google’s free products and other technologies, learn about innovative instructional strategies, receive resources to share with colleagues, and learn how to apply examples from our innovative corporate environment. Potential applicants include educational leaders or decision makers including (but not limited to) school principals, assistant principals, state, county or district superintendents, technology directors or coordinators, and CTOs who actively serve K-12 teachers and students. For more information, please check out: http://www.google.com/educators/gtaforadmins.html
OR
Apply before midnight, January 25th here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/a/google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dE1lYmFfTU4zN1RQWDBpX20wb3BsWXc6MA

Jokes:

The teacher says to her new class, “For our first lesson, each of you will stand up, tell us your name, what your father does, spell what your father does, and then explain it to us. All right, Billy. You go first.”

Billy stands up and says, “My name’s Billy. My father’s a lawyer, l-a-w-y-e-r, and he defends people in court.”

The teacher says, “Benjamin, you go home tonight and learn how to spell pharmacist. All right, Jennifer.”

Jennifer stands up and says, “My name’s Jennifer. My old man’s a bookie, b-o-o-k-i-e, and if he was here, he’d give you nine-to-five odds Benjamin ain’t spellin’ pharmacist by tomorrow.”

A teacher asked one of the boys in her class,
“Can people predict the future with cards?”
His response is, “My mother can.”
The teacher replies in disbelief, “Really?”
The young boy is quick to explain,
“Yes, she takes one look at my report card and tells me what will happen when my father gets home.”

Who designed Noah’s ark?An ark-itect! (from Arkansas) …

What did they wear at the Boston Tea Party?T-Shirts!

When crossing the Delaware River why did George Washington stand up in the boat?He was afraid that if he sat down that someone would give him an oar to row!

If Atlas supported the world on his shoulders, who supported Atlas?His wife!

What’s the moral of the story about Jonah and the whale?

On Our Mind:

“While National Middle School Association conducts a search for the next leader of the association, the NMSA Board of Trustees has appointed Dr. Santo Pino as interim executive director. Dr. Pino will work with the board and staff to continue to advance the work of the organization until a new leader is in place.

Dr. Pino is currently a consultant for schools and districts primarily in the state of Florida and serves as an advisor to the Florida League of Middle Schools. During his career, Dr. Pino has been a principal, a district director of middle level education in Florida and Ohio, and served as president of National Middle School Association (2000-2001). Additionally, Dr. Pino is a core member of the faculty for NMSA’s summer leadership institutes.

NMSA09:

Todd Williamson: 8 Internet Tools
(My notes incomplete due to session scheduling. Complete notes (and a Prezi!) can be found at Todd Williamson’s blog.)
Chatzy
Private Chats.
Edmodo
Private micro-blogging service
Animoto
http://animoto.com/education
xtra normal
www.xtranormal.com
If you can type, you can make movies.
Doesn’t require a sign-in.
Has a place to write the script.
Choose a camera angles.
Alice is a simple programming language between characters.
Similar to xtra, but xtra is simpler.
Make Beliefs Comix www.makebeliefscomix.com
Easy way to make a comic strip.
Leave it blank and have the kids draw in the background.
Netvibes
RSS feeds.
Public RSS feed page.
www.netvibes.com/sunfish#Science_Feeds (Note: This sample link is no longer available.)
Twilliamson15 on twitter.

Eight (or more) Tech Tools to Blend into your Classroom

Todd Williamson (See also Shawn’s Notes)

Session Description: This session will focus on web-based tools that allow your students to collaborate, communicate, and create. Join us for a fast-paced (possibly lightening fast) look at eight (or more) tech tools that you can use to enhance your teaching and student learning. Oh, and they’re free too!

Create multiple tabs on one web site. This means that the teacher need only send the students to one URL to see all of the sites. Great tool to solve the problem of students writing down multiple web sites.

No registration needed. Stickies on a wall. Useful as graphic organizer. Students can move the notes around.

Google Teacher Academy for Administrators: “We’re very excited to announce our first ever Google Teacher Academy for Administrators. Since many of you have been asking for a GTA for Admins for a while, we’ve decided to host the first one immediately preceding the ASCD conference, on Friday, March 5th in San Antonio, Texas. As you might know, the Google Teacher Academy for Administrators is a FREE professional development experience designed to help K-12 educational leaders get the most from innovative technologies. Each Academy is an intensive, one-day event where participants get hands-on experience with Google’s free products and other technologies, learn about innovative instructional strategies, receive resources to share with colleagues, and learn how to apply examples from our innovative corporate environment. Potential applicants include educational leaders or decision makers including (but not limited to) school principals, assistant principals, state, county or district superintendents, technology directors or coordinators, and CTOs who actively serve K-12 teachers and students. For more information, please check out: http://www.google.com/educators/gtaforadmins.html
OR
Apply before midnight, January 25th here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/a/google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dE1lYmFfTU4zN1RQWDBpX20wb3BsWXc6MA “

Webspotlight:

Proprofs – Online Game Creation

Practicing new skills and learning new facts is often presented as less than exciting, but education does not have to be this way. Good teachers have always known that puzzle games are some of the best ways to get old and young alike well on their way towards mastering a subject area. ProProfs is dedicated to the mission of combining education and entertainment, providing free online puzzles, brain games, and other fun resources to get people actively involved in the learning process.http://www.proprofs.com/

Free Audio Book: A Christmas Carol

Footnote:

Footnote helps you find and share historic documents. We are able to bring you many never-before-seen historic documents through our unique partnerships with The National Archives, the Library of Congress and other institutions.

Reading Practice Can Strengthen Brain ‘Highways’

Intensive reading programs can produce measurable changes in the structure of a child’s brain, according to a study in the journal Neuron. The study found that several different programs improved the integrity of fibers that carry information from one part of the brain to another.

NMSA09:

Cross-Over Boundaries

Brain research has reported that the brain does not compartmentalize information. “The brain is by nature a pattern-detecting appartus… The focus of this session is on developing curricula that integrates
multiple subjects with arts-based project applications while encouraging use of higher order critical and creative thinking skills, with participants developing curricula suited to their needs through discussion, examples of student work and assessment.
aviary web site. All about integrated teaching. Don’t teach single subject teaching. Art teacher who is big upon cross the boundaries of teaching and learning. Points out the make up of the brain. Teachers need to work together to develop multi-disciplinary lessons.

Getting School Wise:

Carol Josel
(Troy’s Notes) Session Description: As children reach middle school, pressure builds, coursework and studying demands intensify, and supporting students’ academic efforts with essential learning strategies becomes even more crucial but is often overlooked. This presentation will help teachers incorporate time management, memory techniques, study strategies, 2-column notes, and test-taking skills into their lessons, regardless of the content area. All activities are included in a take-it-with-you packet for immediate classroom use.
www.Schoolwisebooks.com
http://www.schoolwisebooks.com/blog
mailto://carol.schoolwisebooks.com
Move to nationalize standards. Some teachers are being asked to report where they are in every book every 2 weeks.
Salaries tied to student performance. Pretty Good Student by Charles Osgood. 1/3 of states have lowered their standards over the past few years.
Ask students to define time. How structured is your time? If completely structured rank as a 10. Teenagers should get at least 9 hours of sleep a night. Time Activity (see handout pg 64).

Memory Tips:
• Repetition • Recitation • Chunking
Good Books: Demonic Mnenomics
How to Spell It – can look words up by the “wrong” spelling.
DMSCB – Divide/Multiple/Subtract/Check/Bring down (Does McDonald’s See Cheese Burgers)
Kids read more closely just by highlighting. Post-its in the textbook are also helpful. SQ3R
CEU: GR6

(Shawn’s Notes) Quote: “Helen Ladd: “One theory of action seems to be that holding teachers accountable for their student’s scores . . .”
“The Pretty Good Student . . . ” by Charles Osgood.
Time activity
Define time
How efficient are you with your time. A scale of 1 to 10.
What is your personal time waster?
Kids spend 45.5 hours per week watching television and related activities per week.
Notebook check (This is an actual, physical notebook)
Ingredients:
Assignment Book
Homework folder
Hole puncher
Small pencil case
22 dividers (+ keyboarding)
Notebook paper
Sample section
Science
Notes
Tests/quizzes
Homework
The Interference and Memory Curve
99-95% crammed at night
80% by the time the student hits first hour.
50-60% retention by the time of the test.
0% a day or two after the test.
Memory strategies: Einstein “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
Factual knowledge is important also.
Yellow paper activity.
Repetition
Recitation
Chunking
Mnemonics
Book: Demonic Mnemonics
Book: How to Spell it
DMSCB
Does McDonald’s Sell Cheese Burgers?
Divide/Multiply/Subtract/Check/Bring Down
Study Skills
Two column note taking
On the left put the question
on the right put the answer.
Students can fold it and then quiz themselves.